Review: REDNECK #1

REDNECK No. 1
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Donny Cates
ARTIST: Lisandro Estherren
COLORS: Dee Cunniffe
LETTERS: Joe Sabino
COVER: Lisandro Estherren with Dee Cunniffe
28pp, Color, $3.99 print/$1.99 digital U.S. (April 2017)

Rated M / Mature

Redneck is a new comic book series written by Donny Cates (God Country) and drawn by Lisandro Estherren.  The series is set in modern day East Texas and follows a family of vampires who have been living peacefully until it all ends.  Dee Cunniffe provides color and Joe Sabino provides lettering for the first issue.

Redneck #1 opens in Sulphur Springs, East Texas on Christmas Eve.  We are introduced to the Bowman family via Uncle Bartlett Bowman.  They live in peace and in secret, sustained on cow's blood.  On this night, his nephews are heading into downtown Sulphur Springs for some fun.  Bartlett follows them and has to step in when the boys run into trouble that takes a worse turn than expected.  Now, the Bowman family honcho, J.V., prepares to start a war.

I think I first learned of Redneck #1 through a listing by Diamond Comics Distributors, but I paid more attention when a friend of mine who manages a comic book store told me that it had sold out.  He mentioned there was a small race to obtain copies as a result of the sell out.  The week that Redneck #2 came out was also the week that the second printing of Redneck #1 arrived.  Why not...

I like Redneck #1 because it promises to be fun and violent.  It reminds me of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's recent Moonshine (also from Image Comics) and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher (DC Comics), almost as if elements of the two had intermingled.  What writer Donny Coates offers in this first issue is basically him making the story show its ass and dare anyone not to recognize that it is a sweet, sweet badass.

The art is a little too raggedy for me.  It is as if artist Lisandro Estherren is doing a scratchy impressionistic take on the already-impressionist Ben Templesmith.  In spite of my reservations, I think that Estherren's style might be just right for this comic book.  We'll see...

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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